•Isaiah 35
•A Great Salvation
•1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
•the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
•2 it shall blossom abundantly
•and rejoice with joy and singing.
•The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
•the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
•They shall see the glory of the LORD,
•the majesty of our God.
•3 Strengthen the weak hands,
•and make firm the feeble knees.
•4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
•“Be strong; fear not!
•Behold, your God
•will come with vengeance,
•with the recompense of God.
•He will come and save you.”
•
(Isaiah 35:1-4, ESV)
•5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
•and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
•6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
•and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
•For waters break forth in the wilderness,
•and streams in the desert;
•7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
•and the thirsty ground springs of water;
•in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
•the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
•
•(Isaiah 35:5-7, ESV)
• 8 And a highway shall be there,
•and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
•the unclean shall not pass over it.
•It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
•even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
•9 No lion shall be there,
•nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
•they shall not be found there,
•but the redeemed shall walk there.
•10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
•and come to Zion with singing;
•everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
•they shall obtain gladness and joy,
•and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
•
•(Isaiah 35:8-10, ESV)
•Main Point
•In the previous chapter we saw the judgment of God
• In this chapter we see God’s grace and mercy
• Despite what the people may deserve, God has ransomed them and brought them back to Himself
• This salvation effects all things both spiritual and physical as the people rejoice in the strength, majesty, glory, and salvation of their God.
•
•Application Points
•A Great Salvation
• In two chapters Isaiah has managed to bring us to the absolute darkness…just to bathe is in eternal light
• In this chapter we see how redemption is still possible
• We are truly sinful, guilty, and worthy of being dispossessed
• The judgment for such a people as us is certainly reasonable
• It is often claimed that the Bible is a dark book
• The Bible is honest, truth, it presents humanity as we really are
•
•Application Points
•A Great Salvation (2)
• The witness, does not end with our darkness
• It brings us into the light of God
• It is possible for us to be healed, changed, redeemed
• Here the redemption of the world and the restoration of God’s people is highlighted
• It is not the people who have accomplished this
• We could not make our own highway of holiness
• A highway which those who walk are protected
•Application Points
•A Great Salvation (3)
• This onslaught of the world is not just the physical elements
• There is protection against the untruth
• It is protection against the wiles of the world
• He has created this safe passage
• Just as Isaiah stood before the holy throne of God…so God redeems him and purifies Isaiah
• So it is with all those who would seek God
• Such a faith is not blind to Isaiah
• It is not a blind leap in the dark, but a leap into the ever present arms of One who is capable of carrying us all the way home
•Application Points
•A Great Salvation (4)
• Isaiah describes this redemption in such a poetic way
• It is a full redemption, a full restoration
• Without God no such path exists
• He is the One who provides the righteousness, the holiness, and the eternal city of peace
• He provides nothing less than Himself
• In this we hear the echoes of Christ
• Consider the passage from the Gospel of John…
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
(John 1:1-18, ESV)
•Application Points
•A Great Salvation (5)
• In Christ we see the ultimate fulfillment of this reality
• Our wounds are healed…our once barren deserts are now full of water and life
• It is He, the One who has brought the glory down to us
• Let us consider the truth of what Isaiah has proclaimed
• God has provided a way of salvation which can never fail
• Let us rejoice, then, that such a way has been made through Jesus Christ
• The wounds of the world will not keep us, the darkness of the world will not overwhelm us
• The light of God guides us now and forevermore through this great salvation
•Application Points
•The Gospel of Christ
•Origins
•Where we began
•Fall
•What went wrong
•Redemption
•How it is fixed
•Glorification
•Where it at leads
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